Category: ChartedPage 18 of 51

A British history of popular video games, told one sales chart #1 at a time

“A real slobber knocker” – WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2006

Sometimes a year in the name is just a year in the name. In 2005 it was not long until Pro Evolution Soccer would make the switch to…

“Space over Tatooine” – Star Wars: Battlefront II

Any questions about the rapid speed of the release this sequel are answered by the bubble on the back of the box proclaiming it the follow-up to the…

“Going at it hammer and tongs” – Pro Evolution Soccer 5

[For this guest post I welcome back Richard Moss, who previously wrote about Sonic Drift. Richard is creator of the documentary podcast The Life & Times of Video…

“Here comes the action” – FIFA 06

The ‘Football’ is gone from the title, as well as the 20: not just the millennium being old hat but a statement of confidence in the brand. What’s…

“It’s a car-crash-car world” – Burnout Revenge

As a child, I played with a lot of toy cars. I gave many of them names, but it was mostly as a way of distinguishing between them…

“Cruising on down to downtown” – The Sims 2: Nightlife

The high sales of boxed copies of expansion packs for The Sims 2 mark a particular transition period for the industry. The success of The Sims and its…

“We’ve got Tangos” – Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown

My third Ubisoft game has several things in common with the first two, some differences, and a lot that points towards both the future and how Ubisoft ended…

“You are the man” – Ridge Racer (PSP)

I remember the massive British advertising push for the PlayStation Portable in the year following its launch. I was taking the tube every day and the distinctive adverts…

“What is human life but a game of cricket?” – Brian Lara International Cricket 2005

Talk about picking your moment. The back of the box of Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 quotes the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine calling it “the best cricket game…

“Now I’ve seen it all” – Madagascar

When Shrek went from ‘the gulag’, in which Dreamworks staff were exiled, to a huge success, it proved the launchpad for a very successful run of Dreamworks computer…